Recently, 3D dental intraoral scanning technology has been developed rapidly and applied widely in everyday dental practice. Since 3D dental scanning could provide valuable personal information, it enabled researchers to develop novel procedures for individual identification through 3D-3D dentition superimposition. This study aimed to test the applicability of this method in an Eastern Chinese population and propose a threshold for personal identification. For this purpose, 40 volunteers were recruited, and the initial 80 (upper and lower) 3D intraoral scans (IOS) were collected. After one year, 80 IOS of these volunteers were repeatedly collected. In addition, the other 120 IOS of 60 patients were extracted from the database. The 3D models were trimmed, aligned, and superimposed via Geomagic Control X software, and then the root mean square (RMS) value of point-to-point distance between the two models was calculated. The superimposition of two IOS belonging to the same individual was considered as a match, and superimposition of two IOS belonging to different individuals was considered as a mismatch. Totally, superimpositions of 80 matches and 3120 mismatches were obtained. Intra- and inter-observer errors were assessed through the calculation of relative technical error of measurement (rTEM). Mann-Whitney U test verified possible statistically significant differences between matches and mismatches (P < 0.05). The rTEM of intra- and inter-observer repeatability analyses was lower than 4.7 %. The range of RMS value was 0.05-0.18 mm in matches and 0.72-2.28 mm in mismatches without overlapping. The percentage of accurate identification reached 100 % in blind test through an arbitrary RMS threshold of 0.45 mm. The results indicated that individual identification through the 3D-3D dentition superimposition was effective in Eastern Chinese population. Successful identification could be achieved with high probability when the RMS value of the point-to-point distance of two dentitions is <0.45 mm.

To explore the application of a traditional machine learning model in the intelligent management of pigs, in this paper, the influence of PCA pre-treatment on pig face identification with RF is studied. By this testing method, the parameters of two testing schemes, one adopting RF alone and the other adopting RF + PCA, were determined to be 65 and 70, respectively. With individual identification tests carried out on 10 pigs, accuracy, recall, and f1-score were increased by 2.66, 2.76, and 2.81 percentage points, respectively. Except for the slight increase in training time, the test time was reduced to 75% of the old scheme, and the efficiency of the optimized scheme was greatly improved. It indicates that PCA pre-treatment positively improved the efficiency of individual pig identification with RF. Furthermore, it provides experimental support for the mobile terminals and the embedded application of RF classifiers.

The probative value of animal forensic genetic evidence relies on laboratory accuracy and reliability. Inter-laboratory comparisons allow laboratories to evaluate their performance on specific tests and analyses and to continue to monitor their output. The International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG) administered animal forensic comparison tests (AFCTs) in 2016 and 2018 to assess the limitations and capabilities of laboratories offering forensic identification, parentage and species determination services. The AFCTs revealed that analyses of low DNA template concentrations (≤300 pg/µL) constitute a significant challenge that has prevented many laboratories from reporting correct identification and parentage results. Moreover, a lack of familiarity with species testing protocols, interpretation guidelines and representative databases prevented over a quarter of the participating laboratories from submitting correct species determination results. Several laboratories showed improvement in their genotyping accuracy over time. However, the use of forensically validated standards, such as a standard forensic short tandem repeat (STR) kit, preferably with an allelic ladder, and stricter guidelines for STR typing, may have prevented some common issues from occurring, such as genotyping inaccuracies, missing data, elevated stutter products and loading errors. The AFCTs underscore the importance of conducting routine forensic comparison tests to allow laboratories to compare results from each other. Laboratories should keep improving their scientific and technical capabilities and continuously evaluate their personnel\'s proficiency in critical techniques such as low copy number (LCN) analysis and species testing. Although this is the first time that the ISAG has conducted comparison tests for forensic testing, findings from these AFCTs may serve as the foundation for continuous improvements of the overall quality of animal forensic genetic testing.

Swine DNA profiling is of high importance for animal identification and parentage verification. The aim of this study was to test a set of 14 microsatellite (STR) markers recommended by ISAG for parentage verification in Polish Landrace (PL, n = 900), Polish Large White (PLW, n = 482), Pulawska (PUL, n = 127), and Duroc pigs (DU n = 108). The studied breeds showed a medium level of genetic differentiation. The average value of heterozygosity and degree of polymorphism (PIC) were above 0.5 for the studied breeds, except for the DU breed (PIC = 0.477). The population inbreeding coefficient indicates an absence of inbreeding in the studied breeds (an average value of FIS = 0.007). The cumulative power of discrimination for all breeds reached high values close to 1.0, while the probability of identity (PID) was low, with PID values ranging between 10-9 (for DU) and 10-12 (for PLW). The cumulative exclusion probability for PE1 and PE2 showed that the parentage can be confirmed with a probability of from 92.75% to 99.01% and from 99.49% to 99.97%, respectively.

As a highly endangered species, the giant panda (panda) has attracted significant attention in the past decades. Considerable efforts have been put on panda conservation and reproduction, offering the promising outcome of maintaining the population size of pandas. To evaluate the effectiveness of conservation and management strategies, recognizing individual pandas is critical. However, it remains a challenging task because the existing methods, such as traditional tracking method, discrimination method based on footprint identification, and molecular biology method, are invasive, inaccurate, expensive, or challenging to perform. The advances of imaging technologies have led to the wide applications of digital images and videos in panda conservation and management, which makes it possible for individual panda recognition in a noninvasive manner by using image-based panda face recognition method.In recent years, deep learning has achieved great success in the field of computer vision and pattern recognition. For panda face recognition, a fully automatic deep learning algorithm which consists of a sequence of deep neural networks (DNNs) used for panda face detection, segmentation, alignment, and identity prediction is developed in this study. To develop and evaluate the algorithm, the largest panda image dataset containing 6,441 images from 218 different pandas, which is 39.78% of captive pandas in the world, is established.The algorithm achieved 96.27% accuracy in panda recognition and 100% accuracy in detection.This study shows that panda faces can be used for panda recognition. It enables the use of the cameras installed in their habitat for monitoring their population and behavior. This noninvasive approach is much more cost-effective than the approaches used in the previous panda surveys.

Dogs have long shared close relationships with many humans. Due to the large number of dogs in human populations, they are often involved in crimes. Occasionally, canine biological evidence such as saliva, bloodstains and hairs can be found at crime scenes. Accordingly, canine DNA can be used as forensic evidence. The use of short tandem repeat (STR) loci from biological evidence is valuable for forensic investigations. In Korea, canine STR profiling-related crimes are being successfully analyzed, leading to diverse crimes such as animal cruelty, dog-attacks, murder, robbery, and missing and abandoned dogs being solved. However, the probability of random DNA profile matches cannot be analyzed because of a lack of canine STR data. Therefore, in this study, 10 STR loci were analyzed in 600 dogs in Korea (344 dogs belonging to 30 different purebreds and 256 crossbred dogs) to estimate canine forensic genetic parameters. Among purebred dogs, a separate statistical analysis was conducted for five major subgroups, 97 Maltese, 47 Poodles, 31 Shih Tzus, 32 Yorkshire Terriers, and 25 Pomeranians. Allele frequencies, expected (Hexp) and observed heterozygosity (Hobs), fixation index (F), probability of identity (P(ID)), probability of sibling identity (P(ID)sib) and probability of exclusion (PE) were then calculated. The Hexp values ranged from 0.901 (PEZ12) to 0.634 (FHC2079), while the P(ID)sib values were between 0.481 (FHC2079) and 0.304 (PEZ12) and the P(ID)sib was about 3.35 × 10(-)⁵ for the combination of all 10 loci. The results presented herein will strengthen the value of canine DNA to solving dog-related crimes.

DNA-based individual identification and RNA-based tissue identification represent two commonly-used tools in forensic investigation, aiming to identify crime scene sample donors and helping to provide links between DNA-identified sample donors and criminal acts. Currently however, both analyses are typically performed separately. In this proof-of-principle study, we developed an approach for the simultaneous analysis of forensic STRs, amelogenin, and forensic mRNAs based on parallel targeted DNA/RNA sequencing using the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine(®) (PGM™) System coupled with the AmpliSeq™ targeted amplification. We demonstrated that 9 autosomal STRs commonly used for individual identification (CSF1PO, D16S539, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, TH01, TPOX, and vWA), the AMELX/AMELY system widely applied for sex identification, and 12 mRNA markers previously established for forensic tissue identification (ALAS2 and SPTB for peripheral blood, MMP10 and MMP11 for menstrual blood, HTN3 and STATH for saliva, PRM1 and TGM4 for semen, CYP2B7P1 and MUC4 for vaginal secretion, CCL27 and LCE1C for skin) together with two candidate reference mRNA markers (HPRT1 and SDHA) can all be successfully combined. Unambiguous mRNA-based tissue identification was achieved in all samples from all forensically relevant tissues tested, and STR sequencing analysis of the tissue sample donors was 100% concordant with conventional STR profiling using a commercial kit. Successful STR analysis was obtained from 1ng of genomic DNA and mRNA analysis from 10ng total RNA; however, sensitivity limits were not investigated in this proof-of-principle study and are expected to be much lower. Since dried materials with noticeable RNA degradation and small DNA/RNA amplicons with high-coverage sequencing were used, the achieved correct individual and tissue identification demonstrates the suitability of this approach for analyzing degraded materials in future forensic applications. Overall, our study demonstrates the feasibility of simultaneously obtaining multilocus STR, amelogenin, and multilocus mRNA information for combined individual and tissue identification from a small sample of degraded biological material. Moreover, our study marks the first step towards combining many DNA/RNA markers for various forensic purposes to increase the effectiveness of molecular forensic analysis and to allow more forensically relevant information to be obtained from limited forensic material.

BACKGROUND: Lip print patterns are individualistic and unique and can be used for identification of individuals.
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to find out the different types of lip patterns, know the most common one and to know whether it has any gender predilection among adults of Sebha city.
METHODS: A total of 104 adults aged 18-35 years participated in this study. Lip prints were recorded and analyzed for lip print patterns. Statistical analysis was carried out using the computer software Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) 17.0 (Chicago, Illinos, USA).
RESULTS: Type I lip print pattern was seen in 53.37% and 60.07% of lip quadrants in males and females, respectively. 27 (25.96%) subjects had same lip print pattern in all the four quadrants.
CONCLUSIONS: Suzuki and Tsuchihashi\'s Type I lip print pattern was most common type of lip print pattern in the studied population, whereas Type I\' was found to be the least common.

Insertion/deletion (INDELs) marker sets can serve as a useful supplementary tool for human identification. A commercial kit, the Qiagen DIPplex(®) Investigator kit, multiplexes 30 biallelic autosomal INDELs and Amelogenin for forensic use. We performed a validation study based on the DIPplex(®) kit in four Chinese populations: Han, Tibetan, Uyghur, and Kazakh. There were no significant departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium or significant linkage disequilibrium (pair-wised r(2)<0.2) between the 30 INDELs. The random match probabilities were in the range of 3.84 × 10(-11) to 1.20 × 10(-12), and the power of exclusion was >0.99. The multiplex PCR was optimized for a 5-μL volume, full profiles were obtained with 0.062 ng/μL of template DNA, and excellent performance was obtained with degraded casework samples. This study demonstrates that the multiplex INDEL assay can be used as a supplementary method for degraded DNA detection in the studied Chinese populations.